Under The Skin

A disappointing adaptation that barely scrapes the surface of Michel Faber’s masterful and understated alien-incursion novel. The initial scenario is the same but Faber’s themes of class and industrial ethics are discarded in favour of more familiar gender politics, alien empathy and finally watching Scarlett Johanssen wander like an amnesiac around the fringes of Glasgow for the best part of an hour. While the film has striking scenes of beauty and alarm it overplays it’s quest for subtlety in exuding it’s story. And why adapt a book that had so much to say and eschew nearly all of it? Perhaps because an alien seductress is a compelling motif.